Dr. Dre Inspired To Complete Detox

When Dr. Dre surprised the crowd at Eminem and Jay-Z’s historic first Home and Home Tour stop in Detroit, fans greeted the elusive rap king with epic chants of “Detox!” after he spit memorable bars from his last LP, The Chronic 2001. During a recent sit-down, Dre said the warm response motivated the beatmaster to hit the lab and get his much-anticipated and long-delayed follow-up into the hands of those screaming fans.

“Being on the stage with Eminem and Jay-Z was one of the most incredible feelings I’ve felt in a long time. It inspired me, it made me want to hurry up and get back in the studio and put more effort and more work into my own project,” Dre told MTV2’s “Sucker Free” on Wednesday during an event for his latest successful venture, Beats by Dre.

The much-lauded producer said rocking the stage with his protégé-turned-pop phenomenon, Eminem, and his “Under Pressure” collaborator, Jay-Z, validated his current efforts and demonstrated that more than 10 years into the wait for Detox, hip-hop heads are still hungry for more Dre-helmed bangers.

“The response from the people out there was just incredible,” Dre said. “It let me know that I still got love out there and I’m not wasting my time in the studio with what I’m doing, with the music or with all the Beats product that we’re putting out.”

After stacking hip-hop hits for decades, nurturing the careers of superstar MCs such as Snoop Dogg, Em and 50 Cent, releasing two almost undeniably classic solo efforts, 2001 and 1992’s The Chronic, and shaping the way the latest generation of rap lovers hears music with his Beats by Dre headphones, the Doc has crafted a game-changing legacy. Even boasting that singular résumé, the deafening shouts from die-hard Dre acolytes still excite the rap icon.

“I can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s an incredible feeling. It’s not something that can be bought. You have to earn it, and it just made me feel just amazing.”